Musselburgh - Lothians - Scotland

We played Musselburgh/ Monktonhall last year during our golf trip visiting the Lothians. The course feels like a mature course, starts with a fun downhill par 4, and tests your overall golf abilities from start to finish. The course is a nice mix of long and short holes, offering you a good parkland golf experience.

I remember the holes at the other side of the railway track best, but will never forget the slightly uphill 18th, with the promising sight of the clubhouse, whilst walking up to the green.

The design of the course never gets to exiting, but the green complexes are well designed and well maintained.

The clubhouse offers nice views from the terraces, overlooking hole 1 and 18.

Given the overall golf test it provides, I/m not surprised the course has been used as a qualifier for the Open in the past.

OCB

Musselburgh/Monktonhall looked a picture on a beautiful summer's evening and the course was in fine condition. After a promising start with two good par 4s and a fun short par 3 the course settles into a pattern of lengthy par 4s set amongst trees but with generous fairways that mean they are not in play, The challenge is to avoid the numerous bunkers as well as the hidden burn at the 9th. Perhaps because of the lack of changes in elevation many of the holes are similar and I am finding it hard to recall many of them just a couple of days later, The exceptions to this are the excellent par 3 11th and the beautiful 17th. Overall a decent parkland track.

I’ve passed this course more than a dozen times in recent years on my way to the wonderful links layouts along the East Lothian coast but my, what a gem of a parkland track I’ve been overlooking! Lush and long, the fairways at Musselburgh are set either side of the main railway line into Edinburgh with holes 8 to 15 laid out on the more undulating ground on the south side of the tracks.

Playing corridors are generally wide but the intimidating greenside bunker complexes are very impressive hazards, particularly on the four short holes at 3, 6, 11 and 16. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest to find that this course will be used for Final Qualifying in 2013 when the Open is held at Muirfield as it’s a quality course that’s well worth getting to know.

Jim McCann